Posted by TCYonline.com on June 10, 2010
Contributed By IIM Lucknow Students
As the B-school admissions pick up steam, candidates are busy preparing for the nerve-wracking group discussion-personal interview phase. To assist aspiring management grads in their preparation, students at IIM Lucknow [ have come together to pool their experiences of the admissions process and present these tips.
IIM Lucknow’s post-CAT selection process consists of three parts:
1. Written ability test (of 15 minutes duration)
2. Group discussion (on a given topic for 20 minutes)
3. Personal interview
Last year, the process began with the written ability test, which is typically an essay-writing exercise. Over the past three years, the topics for this test have been one line abstract topics and the time allotted for this is 15 minutes.
Evaluation of the essay is done on the parameters of perspective and communication. This is followed by a group discussion on the same topic. The maximum time allotted for the GD is 20 minutes.
GD topics for CAT 2008
- He who knows how to be poor knows everything
- Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy
- A fool can ask more questions in an hour than a wise man can answer in seven years
- You have to break a few eggs to make an omellette
- When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail
- If you want peace, prepare for war
- Patience is a bitter plant but it bears sweet fruit
- Cursing the weather is bad farming
- It is better to be born lucky than rich
- Good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from poor judgement
- If you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem
- Rules are made to be broken
GD topics for CAT 2007
- Business and Ethics do not go together
- Performance enhancing drugs should be legalised in sports
- The test of a successful man is not an ability to eliminate the problem before it exists, but to meet and resolve it whenever it arises
- Good economics is bad politics
- A successful man is not one who has ability to eliminate problems before they occur, but who can face the difficulties as they arise and solve them
- Good things always arise from good thinking
- A successful man is one who plans for the problems and avoids them and not one who faces problems as they come and solves them
- Faith is to believe what you do not yet see, reward for faith is to see what you believe
- Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative
- When you find that you are on the side of majority, it is time to reform
- Science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind
- Morality is the creation of the weak to deter and limit the strong
- Winning is what matters, whatever may be the cost
- Education is a progressive way of discovering your ignorance
- Great spirits face violent opposition from mediocre minds
- Helping hands are better than praying lips
- Necessity is the mother of all invention
- Thinking about the worst prepares you for the worst
- A closed mouth catches no flies
- You don’t have to be different to be good; but you have to be good to be different
- If you give a man a fish, he eats it once. You teach a man to fish, you lose a business opportunity
- A man with words and no deeds is like a garden full of weeds
- For an idea to be accepted it has to be advertised by a good salesman
- Law is the creation of the strong to rule the weak
- Happiness is a mystery like religion, and it should not be rationalised
- Hope for ill gains is the beginning of loss
- Education is what remains after one forgets what one has learnt in school
GD topics for CAT 2006
- Life has become dangerous in this unipolar world
- A permanent seat in the UN Security Council is neither necessary nor sufficient for India to become a world power
- A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in teaching the students
- In business, the rear view mirror is clearer than the windshield
- True happiness can be got only when you make the others feel that they are responsible for it
- A room without books is like a body without soul
- Speculation is an art of life
- The validity of science lies in its power to predict
- Freedom is the freedom to say 2 + 2 = 4. Once that is granted, everything else follows
- That so few people now dare to be eccentric, is the chief danger of our times
Personal interview
Typically personal interviews begin with the “Tell us about yourself” question. Candidates have to be well prepared for this question as the rest of the interview would be based on the answer they give to this question.
Candidates are also asked about their strengths, weaknesses, long-term and short-term goals. Candidates are asked questions on the core subjects of their academic stream and recent developments in that area.
Engineering students are expected to be well-versed with engineering maths as well as their final year projects. Those having prior work experience are questioned on their roles and responsibilities, their company and its competitors, recent performance, and industry trends.
The candidate is expected to have a sound reason for leaving his/her job and pursuing an MBA. Interviewers also ask questions on current affairs in the world of politics and business. Through this, they not only try and assess a student’s knowledge and awareness but also his ability to think.
A candidate may also be asked to share details on his extra-curricular achievements and the hobbies that he has pursued.
While a candidate may not be questioned on all the above mentioned areas, it is always better to be prepared for them.
This is a compilation of student experiences and interaction with the faculty, and is not officially endorsed by IIM Lucknow.
Source: http://getahead.rediff.com
Posted by TCYonline.com on June 9, 2010
Contributed By Bharat Jhurani
The CAT results have been declared and IIM hopefuls are now focussed on acing the secong leg of the admissions process — the group discussions (GD) and the personal interview (PI).
To help students prepare themselves for all the possible twists and turns a personal interview can take, we publish first-hand experiences of students who managed to breeze through their PI and others who crashed and burned.
Here, Bharat Jhurani, a first-year student at IIM Lucknow, shares his interview experience as a part of the CAT selection process.
I am an electronics and communications engineer from the GITAM college of engineering (Non-NIT, IIT!), Visakhapatnam and I graduated in 2007(yup, a fresher!).
My lone IIM call — after all those arduous AIM CATS — topping them, working hard and even managing a 99.36 percentile in CAT — was from IIM Lucknow. One single IIM call! The reason? My slightly low score in the Verbal Ability section.
Anyway, no use crying over spilt milk. I decided to give this my best shot.
My group discussion and interview were scheduled on February 17 at 2 pm, the venue being Hotel Monarch, Bangalore. I was made part of Panel II and my number was 9 (why is it always Number 9?). I was called in for the GD and the essay at about 3 pm. There were two panel members presiding and 12 of us within the group. IIM-L is known for assigning abstract topics and it maintained its reputation upon this particular occasion. The topic? ‘The most effective way to eradicate poverty is through effective governance’.
As soon as it was dictated, we were asked to write a small essay in about 150 words within 5 minutes. After the stipulated time, the papers were taken away, leaving us to discuss the topic. With such an open-ended topic thrown in, it was literally a fish fight in the beginning — everyone was hurling in whatever facts they had at hand and I was no exception! I piped up quite a number of times during the process. Overall it was a pretty good GD, but it could have been better.
Then came the time for personal interviews — they were pretty short and I presented myself before the panel at 4:30 pm. It comprised of the same individuals who presided over the GD. My interview lasted for all of six minutes.
As I entered I was asked if I would like to enroll in the Agro-Business Management (ABM) course offered by the institute. I initially relented, but then informed them that I would prefer to leave it as a second option. So much for preparation!
Following this, I was asked the cliched question — ‘Tell us about yourself’ — which I answered reasonably well, highlighting my background, my hobbies (blogging, basketball) and my accomplishments (class representative etc).
Then followed a few questions on statistics, probability and simple mathematics. I answered all well, save two — one probability query, in which I mixed up the basic concept and a definition of disjoint events, for which I incorrectly rattled off all about independent events. I got so confused that they had to explain the concept to me and not becasue I didn’t know the answer, but because I was just too stressed. The lack of comfort showed so much on my face that one of the panel members actually said, “Don’t feel tensed! Be cool. It is not a stress interview.”
When asked what I do in my free time, I mentioned my hobbies once more. The younger of the two panelists seemed very interested in blogging — he questioned me on the contents of my blog and even noted down my blogsite! I started to feel a little better about myself and hoped that he would visit it before deciding my fate!
They then asked if I had any questions for them, to which I replied in the negative. I thanked them and smiled, leaving the room confidently. That was the end of my interview.
Two months later, I found that I have made it — I got a convert and am presently the first student out here at the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.
Gathering from my experience, I would say that the interviewers look for passion, ability and enthusiasm in a candidate, coupled with decent knowledge of current events and decent English language skills.
Get in there confidently and you’ll emerge victorious!
Source: www.rediff.com/getahead
Posted by TCYonline.com on
Contributed by the students of IIM Lucknow
Group discussions are an important part of the selection process for any B-school and for an IIM it is all the more important as it’s the first time that the panel gets to see you and listen to you. To ensure that one does well in a group discussion, one has to prepare and practice.
Through this article, we will try and give some tips and techniques which can go a long way in helping the candidate come out with flying colors in the group discussion.
What should I always remember?
First things first, most candidates must remember that it’s a discussion and hence it involves both speaking and listening. Doing only one of the two will not be called a discussion and hence a candidate should ensure that he listens as much as he speaks.
Besides this, the purpose of a group discussion must be clear to a candidate. The purpose of a group discussion is to understand the given problem or topic in its entirety and to try and reach a logical conclusion or opinion. Enough time should be given to understand the problem and jumping to a conclusion is the biggest mistake one can make. Mere consensus building is not the real purpose.
The other most important aspect about a discussion is to approach the topic or the problem in a structured manner. One should not analyse a problem and suggest a solution without looking at the objectives, without weighing alternative solutions and without predicting the kind of challenges that may arise while implementing the proposed solution.
Besides, this one must try and come up with relevant examples to corroborate one’s argument since they add a lot of weight to the argument and clarifies what one intends to say. A candidate should also try and be creative and come up with ideas from what he has read.
Communication is an area that plays a very important role. A candidate must speak clearly, slowly and briefly. One must present his argument by giving relevant reasons and examples as it builds a stronger argument.
How do I prepare?
As far as the preparation for a GD is concerned, the candidate should read extensively. The reading should be done with the goal of building perspective and developing an understanding and not just merely remembering facts and figures.
We recommend that one should read articles from newspapers, business magazines, online and then pause for a while to think about what one has read. A candidate should question himself on his understanding of the article. For instance, if the article is on an important business acquisition, then he should ask questions such as “what does it mean for the company”, “how will the industry change as a result of this”, “what should a competitor do”, “what can be some of the problems that may arise”. This will help a candidate not only build perspective, but will also help him develop the ability to think.
Once a topic is given to a candidate, the candidate must try and look at some of the keywords from the topic to generate ideas. The candidate can also approach it from the point of view of affected parties. Practicing generating ideas and speaking can help. One can even stand in front of the mirror and practice.
In the end, a candidate should stay calm and confident to be able to think clearly and give good arguments. Remember that it’s a discussion and forget for some time that you have to perform. If one makes 3-4 good arguments during different times in the discussion, the one can sail through.
Source: http://getahead.rediff.com
